Finding Your Inner Bunny
by PenguinKye
Summary: An old, old thing, and my only, pathetic attempt at shounenai. Xelloss and Zelgadis are trapped in a cave, and have a conversation that is, in the end, satisfactory to neither.


the first realises.  
  
Finding Your Inner Bunny  
  
I do my best to be how I look: like stone. My best defense is being tough, although my companions don't believe it. From their point of view, it's dangerous to bottle up emotions like I do. It doesn't matter how they cajole and complain, though; I'll keep bottling anyway. A little store of pent-up anger can save you in a battle. At the very least, your opponent will be surprised at your sudden ferocity.  
  
Yes indeed, I'm quite satisfied with my philosophy- happy isn't quite the right word. Trouble being, some situations can turn any good ideals upsidedown. Trouble being, I'm in one of them.  
  
"Are you just going to sit there forever?" I winced, shaken from my thoughtful reverie by the one thing I really didn't want to think about.  
  
"Don't talk to me, mazoku." He shrugged, winking out of existence to reappear on my other side. I turned away. "After all," I continued, "it's your fault that we're stuck here to begin with. Even if I had liked you before-" he raised his eyebrows "-which I did NOT, I would hate you now. There's no reason for us to converse."  
  
"Oh, and here I was hoping for a meaningful relationship." He wavered between sincerity and sarcasm just long enough to make me wonder. I discovered that anger aged as well as good wine, and that following the metaphor, it has got to be drunk eventually.  
  
I hit him hard enough to send him across the room.  
  
"Ow," he said, rubbing his head where it had hit the wall. He floated around me with that annoying grin plastered on his face. I snorted.  
  
"You like pain and we both know it. Don't even try to get remorse from me." He dropped his head to one side, so innocently that I knew whatever he was about to say would infuriate me.  
  
"You say you hate me, and that you know I have a pain fetish, yet you hit me anyway. If you really hate me, why do you want to give me pl-"  
  
"Natural instinct!" I interrupted, turning pink. I might have been gruff and blunt, but I was also modest to a fault. "You lash out against what you hate." He considered.  
  
"Not that I would know, never having been human and all, but it's always looked the other way around to me; you ignore what you hate as much as possible and take it out on other people."  
  
"And ignoring you was what I was doing, until you started talking to me!"  
  
"Of course." I started to answer, barely realizing in time that I was falling into his trap.  
  
"Mph," I said instead, showing him how much I cared. That horrible grin was the only reply.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
He left me alone for a long time, to my great relief. I needed quiet, to think of some way to get us out of this mess. Some way that wouldn't make us- me- look stupid or perverted.  
  
It was taking longer than I had expected.  
  
He sighed, phasing in and out in quick order, appearing (and disappearing) in 30 degree intervals around the room. I tried, really, truly tried, to ignore it completely. However, those bottled emotions eventually got the better of me. I watched to see where he would appear next, and snatched him out of the air before he knew what was happening.  
  
"Mazoku!" I cried in exasperation. "You WILL stop annoying me. You will not amuse yourself by driving me insane. You will help me think of a way out, and you will not act like a child!" He looked down at my hand, quite seriously.  
  
"I should have guessed you'd have a heavy grip," he commented. For a despicable moment, fleeting and terrible, I worried that I might have been too rough. But how could I do that? I hated this creature (he was no man in the true sense of the word- though, to be honest, neither am I.) and his kind was addicted to pain. There was no way I could have bothered him. If I had been trying to. Had I been trying to? I hoped so. The only other reason...no, that was not worth contemplating. I let go, half pulling away and half shoving.  
  
He read my mind, it seemed.  
  
"No two foods are exactly alike, are they?" I glared for an explanation. "I'm just saying, you can have different kinds of pain and suffering as much as you can have different kinds of food. Just because it's food doesn't mean you'll like it. Ne?" I didn't deign to answer.  
  
"Well, okay, if you don't want to talk, what *do* you want to do?" Petulance rose in his voice. Funny that something so old could sound so childish sometimes.  
  
"A lot of things, actually. I want to get out of here. I want you to leave me alone for the rest of my life. I want to be a normal human again. I want a cup of tea. Does this answer your question sufficiently?" He grinned. Again.  
  
"Oh, yes. You don't happen to have any solutions to getting your wants, do you?" I felt myself heat up.  
  
"Leave me alone! I meant it the first time, and every time thereafter. Go as far away as you possibly can, and let me think!" He shrugged.  
  
"If that's what you want." He disappeared.  
  
"Hoi-" I started, and gave up, wondering absent-mindedly how he was managing to disappear when we were (supposed to be) sealed in. Suddenly it struck me that he shouldn't have been able to. "Hang on a minute…Mazoku!!" He appeared, a safe distance above me.  
  
"Hai?"  
  
"How can you disappear when there's a seal blocking magic?"  
  
"It's my nature, not magic?"  
  
"Try again."  
  
"It's faulty?"  
  
"Not yet."  
  
"I'm special?"  
  
"Definitely not. Are you B.S.ing me?" He looked chagrined.  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"But I tried to get out. Was it your fault I couldn't?"  
  
"Well…" I stared, rage stirring in my chest.  
  
"Why? That's the stupidest, most juvenile…you are the most pathetic…Why?" He looked at me with demon eyes, quiet for a moment.  
  
"Because I want to be around you?"  
  
I couldn't possibly answer that.  
  
"No you don't," I said after a moment. "You just like my anger." He glared, which shocked me. He never glared.  
  
"Whatever you want to think. " He paused. "The door's open. Why don't you go back to your dear friends? I'm sure they're worried." He blinked out before I could think of words to reply with.  
  
There was no way. This was one of his sick jokes. He knew how much I hated him, was just trying to bate me.  
  
He never glared. Ever.  
  
He didn't understand what he felt. Whatever it was, it wasn't what he thought. I could never…  
  
He was messing with me. This was what he wanted; confusion. Terror. Dread. Not me…not bottled emotion me, although he's the same in that way. It would be…not right. It would kill Her. And me. If I really hated him. If bottling emotions didn't make them lose their distinctiveness. Maybe there was a reason he had said that.  
  
Maybe the problem was, some things won't be bottled. Not even for a demon.  
  
Maybe.  
  
  
  
Author's note: I dunno how that was. It's the first time I've written even semi-not-quite-yaoi, so if it sucked (don't be so literal) go ahead and tell me. Notice: not one name was spoken. This was on purpose. Although, it was really hard not to use them when there was yelling…@_@ *PLEASE* R+R, I BEG you. 


End file.
